Importance of Localization and Transcreation For Business Expansion

In order to take their business global, marketers have to evaluate the cultural dimensions of their target markets, understand the consumers’ attitudes, behaviour and beliefs and tailor their marketing campaigns to create an impact in these markets.

While translation is important to reach out to a wider section of people, sometimes one needs to go beyond a linguistic adaptation and adjust it to the cultural context of the target audience as well. Therefore, when it comes to meeting the needs of global brands, translation alone doesn’t cut it. That’s why businesses operating internationally often have to recur to localization and transcreation, especially when looking for website, mobile app and quality software localization services.

Localization

Localization is about the holistic adaptation of our message, covering textual as well as paratextual elements and requires an in-depth cross-cultural knowledge. It means customizing a product or content to fit a specific market or country and adjusting its functional properties to accommodate the linguistic, cultural, political and legal differences.

In addition to translation, localization involves other elements such as:

1. Adapting graphics and content to the target market
2. Changing the design and layout accordingly
3. Converting the local currencies, calendar, holidays and measure units
4. Using proper local formats (dates, punctuation, symbols)
5. Addressing local regulations and legal requirements

By the end of the localization process, your product should look and feel as if it was created in the market or country you’re targeting.

Transcreation

Transcreation is the process of recreating content for a new target audience, changing elements of the content such that the overall emotional impact remains the same. Transcreation is much more than translation as it takes the original message and conveys it in another language, making sure that the text in the target language keeps the original style, vocal tone, intent, and emotional salience.

It is the process that re-evaluates the marketing material produced for a local market and re-configures it in order to appeal to an audience with a very different culture. The process of Transcreation involves

1. Understanding the target market
2. Carefully tailoring the message using suitable language, style imagery and tone
3. The words, the tone, and the visuals might be very different from the source content, completely depending on the target audience and what message resonates with it.

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Localization focuses on meeting standards and expectations, on making your brand appear local, while transcreation makes it possible for you to build up your brand in this new locale, through content and engaging copy. Localization and Transcreation will not help you to make your content accessible in a language other than it was originally created in, but will also help with the following:

• Expand Your Business Market

If you want your local customers to know about you, first you have to adapt yourself to the language they speak and the perspective they view things. Localization and Transcreation help you break the linguistic and cultural boundaries, which allows your brand to blend in and then stand out.

• Boost Your Sales

By communicating with your customers in their own language and creating mutual understanding, you are building trust and commitment with them. That will make them more comfortable when dealing with you and making a purchase. Customers are more comfortable and likely to make purchases when they are catered to in their native language, that will ultimately help to set a pace for your competitors.

• Better Customer Satisfaction

Without a careful localization and transcreation plan, your campaign can be offensive to the local customers. A Professional translation agency in India will provide accurate transcreation and localization services that will help you avoid those damages and create appealing user experience for your diversified target customers. Therefore, your overall customer conversion will increase significantly.

• Go Global Without Any Risk

It is true that market penetration success depends on other factors such as product, price, place and promotion, however, without the aid of localization and transcreation, it is more likely that cultural conflicts will block your way before you can step into the market. A sign or visual that is perfectly acceptable in one language can be culturally insensitive in other languages. As Localization and Transcreation also take differences in culture into consideration – not just language in isolation, these can help you prevent major gaffes and blunders.

The power of localization

No matter how good your product or service is, your brand will be able to expand globally only when you resonate with the customers in the target market – and the audience understands your message and offered solutions. LanguageNoBar is a professional Language Service Provider that offers localization and translation services through native experts and linguists.

Optimise your content for the target market, wherever that may be. Opt for the right translation company to help your business achieve goals in a new locale!

Related Blogs:

Are you hiring the right subject matter expert for your translations?

Basic translation terminology – a must for all linguists/marketers5 Reasons Why Localization Is Important For Your Ecommerce Website

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